CHOPIN DAY: A celebration of the music of Chopin with international concert pianist Murray McLachlan & family
Saturday 8 October 2022, 11am-5.30pm, Howden Minster
Free admission with retiring donations
We are delighted to welcome the McLachlan family of virtuoso pianists to Howden for a Chopin extravaganza! Renowned British pianist Murray McLachlan has performed to critical acclaim on all five continents and is the Founder and Director of the world-famous Chetham’s International Piano Summer School. Murray is joined by pianists Kathryn Page, Callum McLachlan, Matthew McLachlan, and Rose McLachlan – all outstanding individual artists, who have featured on BBC Radio 3, won numerous international competitions and performed across the globe. Read more about the performers
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
11.00am-11.45am
Concert: Chopin and the Dance
Murray McLachlan, Kathryn Page, Callum McLachlan, Matthew McLachlan & Rose McLachlan
Join us for a lively, dance-inspired opening concert!
Contre Danse
Trois Ecossaises
Polonaise in E flat minor
Waltz in A flat op. 34 no. 1
Waltz in A minor op. 34 no. 2
Waltz in F major op. 34 no. 3
Mazurkas op. 63
‘Minute’ Waltz in D flat, op. 64 no. 1
Polonaise in A flat major, op. 53 ‘Heroic’
1.30pm-2.15pm
Concert: Chopin the Poet
Murray McLachlan, Kathryn Page, Callum McLachlan, Matthew McLachlan & Rose McLachlan
Explore the lyricism and beauty of Chopin's piano music.
Wiosna
Sostenuto
Cantabile in E flat
Ballade no. 3 in A flat
Four Mazurkas op. 17
Nocturne in F major
Nocturne in B major op. 62 no. 1
Barcarolle in F sharp
2.30pm-3.10pm
Talk: The genius of Chopin — drawing the universe from the keyboard
Murray McLachlan
Join renowned British pianist and lecturer Murray McLachlan for a fascinating, informal 40-minute talk about Chopin's life and music.
3.30pm-4.15pm
Concert: Chopin the Virtuoso
Murray McLachlan, Callum McLachlan, Matthew McLachlan & Rose McLachlan
Join us for a thrilling concert of piano fireworks — Chopin at his most virtuosic and exciting.
Scherzo no. 1 in B minor
Scherzo no. 2 in B flat minor
Études, op. 10 nos. 4, 5, 8, 10 and 12
Ballade no. 1 in G minor
4.45pm-5.30pm
Concert: Chopin the Visionary
Murray McLachlan, Kathryn Page, Callum McLachlan, Matthew McLachlan & Rose McLachlan
The grand finale of our Chopin extravaganza! The closing concert pays tribute to Chopin's incredible creative vision and features a selection of his most groundbreaking, iconic works.
Mazurka in F minor op. 68 no. 4
Fantasie in F minor op 49
Nocturne in E major op. 62 no 2
Six Preludes from opus 28
Ballade no. 4 in F minor
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
‘Murray McLachlan is a pianist with a virtuoso technique and a sure sense of line. His timing and phrasing are impeccable, and his tone – full but unforced in the powerful passages, gentle and restrained in the more lyrical – is a perpetual delight’ - BBC Music Magazine
Since making his professional debut in 1986 at the age of 21 under the baton of Sir Alexander Gibson, Murray McLachlan has consistently received outstanding critical acclaim.
McLachlan’s discography includes over forty commercial recordings, including the complete sonatas of Myaskovsky and Prokofiev, the six concertos of Alexander Tcherepnin, the 24 Preludes and Fugues of Rodion Shchedrin, Ronald Stevenson’s ‘Passacaglia on DSCH’ the major works of Kabalevsky, Khatchaturian and the complete solo piano music of Erik Chisholm. His most recent releases feature British Music: In 2020 he recorded for Naxos the complete piano music of Edward Gregson and in 2019 for SOMM the Ruth Gipps Piano Concerto with the RLPO.
McLachlan’s repertoire includes over 40 concertos and 25 recital programmes. He has performed the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle seven times, as well as the complete piano music of Brahms. He has given first performances of works by many composers, including Martin Butler, Ronald Stevenson, Charles Camilleri, Michael Parkin and even Beethoven! He has appeared as soloist with most of the leading UK orchestras.
McLachlan teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester where he has been Head of Keyboard since 1997. He is the founder of the Manchester International Concerto competition for young pianists as well as the Founder/Artistic Director of the world famous Chetham’s International Summer school and festival for Pianists, Europe’s largest summer school devoted exclusively to the piano. As well as performing and teaching, he is well known internationally for his numerous articles on piano technique and repertoire. This includes extended columns which have appeared in ‘International Piano’, ‘Pianist’ and ‘Piano’ Magazines.
Watch Murray McLachlan play Khatchaturian's Toccata
Kathryn Page has given over 20 recitals at the South Bank and Wigmore Hall, both as soloist and chamber music pianist. She has toured Norway, Italy, Ireland and Australia where she gave seven recitals at the Sydney Festival and broadcast for ABC. At home Kathryn has performed at many of the leading music festivals and has given numerous live broadcasts for BBC Radio Three from Broadcasting House, St George's, Bristol and St David's Hall, Cardiff.
Kathryn has recorded the complete set of six Mozart-Grieg duo sonatas for BBC Radio Three. She has also recorded Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Camilleri’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion with Murray McLachlan.
Rose McLachlan entered Chetham’s School of Music in 2010, initially as a chorister at Manchester Cathedral. Rose is now at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, continuing her studies with Helen Krizos.
In March 2019, Rose performed the Clara Schumann concerto with the New Tyneside Orchestra in Newcastle conducted by Monica Buckland. 2018 saw her first commercial recording being issued by Divine Art, performing ‘Five Hebridean Dances’ by John McLeod. In October 2019 she performed Shostakovich’s Second Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth in the Malcolm Arnold Festival which was broadcast on BBC Radio Three. As a result of this concert she was immediately invited to perform live at the Royal Festival Hall as a solo pianist on BBC Radio Three in a concert scheduled for 6 May 2020. In January 2020, Rose recorded piano duets by the distinguished British composer, Edward Gregson, with her father for a new commercial recording on the Naxos label.
Watch Rose McLachlan play Scarlatti's Sonata in D major
A finalist of the 18th International Robert Schumann Competition Zwickau and described as "A born Schumann player" with a "magical sense of colour and extraordinary technical prowess" (July 2019, London recital), Callum Mclachlan, 22, was born into a family of musicians and first started piano lessons with his father at the age of 7, and entered Chetham’s School of Music at age 11, where he studied with Russian pianist and pedagogue Dina Parakhina. He currently studies at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg since 2018, with the celebrated pianist Claudius Tanski. Next season in 2022 he will debut at the Wien Konzerthaus with cellist Jeremias Fliedl.
Callum has performed at many prestigious concert venues throughout the UK, Europe, and USA, including performing Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, works of Benjamin Britten in Steinway Hall London, Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto with Paul Mann and CSO at RNCM Concert Hall, which he recently repeated at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton in March 2020 and Mozart Sonatas for Piano and Violin at The Bridgewater Hall.
In 2019, he made his New York recital debut, performing works of Beethoven, Brahms and Percy Grainger, a recital programme he performed at the newly opened Stoller Hall in Manchester, to critical acclaim. He was recently personally invited by Pascal Nemirowski to perform in the Young Artist Series in the RBC Birmingham Piano Festival. Most recently, he made a recording of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata at the Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg, in collaboration with G. Henle Verlag for Beethoven 250. Recent highlights of the past season include performing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra, numerous solo recitals in London, Vienna and Manchester, and Mozart’s ‘Jeunehomme’ Concerto arranged for Piano and String Quartet with students from the Royal College of Music in London.
Watch Callum McLachlan perform Chopin's Barcarolle
Matthew McLachlan was born in 2000 and started piano lessons with his father in 2008. At 11 years of age he passed grade 8 and entered Wells Cathedral School as a specialist musician, studying with John Byrne. After two years in Somerset he entered Chetham’s in Manchester where he studied piano with Dina Parakhina and Cello with Gill Thoday. After gaining the ATCL and LTCL recital diplomas with distinction in 2014 and 2015, Matthew was awarded the FTCL in 2016. This followed on from winning third prize in the senior division of the first Scottish International Youth Prize Competition, held at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in July 2016.
In 2014 Matthew’s performance of Ravel’s G Major Piano Concerto was commended in the Chetham’s Concerto competition and in the same year he was a prizewinner at the 2014 Mazovia Chopin Festival in Poland. As a result of his performance in Mazovia, he was selected to perform a 60-minute solo recital at the 2015 World Piano Teachers’ Conference (WPTC) in Novi Sad, Serbia. In 2016 Matthew gave many recitals and was a finalist in the Chetham’s Beethoven Piano Competition for the second year running.
In March 2017 he was awarded first prize in the Chetham’s Senior Bach competition. In August 2017 he performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in the Paderewski Festival in Poland. In Autumn 2017 he had a tour of concert performances featuring Brahms’ Sonata no. 1 in C major.
In 2018 he performed Mozart’s 13th concerto in Trieste, Haddington and Rhyl as well as Tchaikovsky’s first and Beethoven’s fourth concerto in Buxton with the orchestra of the High Peak. In the winter of 2018, the Knights of The Round Table awarded Matthew with a full scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London, where he now studies.
In July 2021 Matthew was awarded first prize in the coveted RCM piano competition - the Chappell Gold Medal.
Watch Matthew McLachlan perform Scriabin's Prelude in G